Writing and my life
Dr. Linghong Li, Assistant Professor of Physics
It has been over 30 years since the first sentences I wrote in the first grade.
Looking back on those years while writing this piece has made me recognize the much
more fluent writer I have become.
I was born in the 60s, the same time Chairman Mao launched the Cultural
Revolution. The purpose of the Cultural Revolution was to get rid of the country’s anticommunism influences. The social and political upheaval consumed China between 1966
and 1976. In this time period, whatever you wrote had to reflect upon the contemporary
society, politics, and culture; even though, being just a child at the time, I knew nothing
about the ideas of the Cultural Revolution. This was the way and the ideas that people
were expected to write about. I just wrote the way we were expected to and nothing more.
My writing was meaningless.
In the late 70s, China undertook many changes in many aspects. China opened its
door to the rest of the world, focused on economic development in order to catch up to
more advanced nations, and gave everyone equal opportunities to go back to school and
college. Before these changes and during the Cultural Revolution, nearly all high school
graduates were sent to the countryside for “re-education.” The benefit, according to
Chairman Mao, was that students would learn to respect the working class and in return
the farmers would learn about new technology from the students. As a result many of
these students became uneducated without going through higher education. After the
college admission policy was changed, students, instead of going to the countryside, took
college entrance exams and went to college. With the opportunities to get higher
education students realized the importance of education. “Study hard and advance
everyday,” was the motto every student had. I had that written on my notebook.
Writing helped me learn about something. Writing about it made me learn many
things about the topic I never knew before. Writing is unique thinking process. It
enhances what one has learned from the classroom. I did very well on my writing
assignments knowing the importance of it. I wrote reflection essays independently to help
myself study new content of every class. My writing was practical and meaningful. Once
in a while, my language teacher would read my writing to the class as a sample. This
encouraged me and made me want to become a professional writer.
I spent most of the 80s in college where I got my Bachelor’s degree in physics
and a Master’s degree in education. I became a physics teacher instead of a professional
writer. Instead of writing freely for recreation, I learned to write in an academic way,
such as lab reports and answering questions.
In the 90s I taught high school in Beijing, China. I wrote for my teaching. I wrote
four papers related to physics education and co-authored two books which help people
learn physics. These two books are: “365 Interesting Physics Stories”, Beijing Broadcast
Institution Press, Beijing, China, 1993(in Chinese); “Physics Dictionary for Middle
School Students”, Jinan Press, Shandong Province, China, 1995(in Chinese).
In the beginning of the 21st century, I came to the United States. My writing now
combines both learning and teaching. My biggest challenge is the English language. I had
to start with no knowledge of English to learn how to express my ideas, thoughts, and
feelings. Although the techniques in writing are similar in English and in Chinese,
expressing them is different. Even if I use a translator, it is hard to get sentences right and
mean what I mean.
So far, I have written over ten academic papers and one book, and all of them use
academic writing. Writing in English has gradually become as easy as using Chinese.
Now I am involved in working on a project writing the end of chapter questions for the
new algebra-based textbook, Physics for Life Science Students, by Freedman, Kesten and
Tauck (W. H. Freeman and Company). This project will be finished at the end of this
year.
Looking back on my writing experiences, I am so happy because writing helps me
succeed in learning and teaching both in China and in the USA, whether it is in English
or Chinese. Everyone can be a writer in some way: expressive, academic, or professional.
Looking ahead towards my future, I am confident I will not stop writing what I please.